Improvement in pigeon-holes for post-offices



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY G. PEARSON, OF NEW YORKpN. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN`PSI'G'EON-HOL-ES FOR POST-OFFICES, 80C.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 70,674, dated November 5, 1867.

To all whom t may concern:

' Be it known that I, HENRY G. PEARsoN, of the city, county, and State of N ew York, have invented certain Improvements in Gases or Sets of Pigeon-Holes for General Business or Post-Office Purposes and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description of my invention sufcient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

My invention relates to a novel construction of pigeon-hole cases or cases having numerous compartments, usually open at one end, and designed for the reception of letters, papers, newspapers, or other small packages; and it has among its objects the more ready and convenient use of the same, especially when required to be rapidly or at stated periods filled or emptied, the avoidance of an accumulation of dust in the several compartments, and the ready and' constant discharge therefrom of such dust or other foreign matter.

It consists in making the bottom or shelf of each pigeon-hole or compartment more or less open or perforated, to permit the free passage downward and through the same of any metes, dust, or other minute particles, which otherwise might settle there.

It further consists in the particular modes of construction of such bottom or bottoms, the position given to them relatively to the sides of the compartments, and in a provision for removing and replacing them with facility when desired.

While my invention is applicable toa variety of uses-as, for instance, the sorting and distributing of newspapers or other matter in large printing establishments; for post-offices, countinghouses, or elsewhere, where large assorted mails are made up; for factories, where a distribution may be desired of large quan- 'tities of small packages, and for all kindred verse section of one mode of constructing the open-work shelf, and Figs. 3 and 4 other varieties of open or net work for the same.

A represents the iioor of the car; B, its

sides; C, the usual broad shelf, answering the purpose of a table or counter; D, the set of pigeonholes, occupying a position somewhatabove said counter, E, the bottoms of the several compartmentsorpigeon-holes5 F, grooves, or, if preferred, ledges, in or upon which the bottom, when made removable, may be slid in or out. A, The bottoms I construct in any -well-known way, or of any material which will allow them to serve the purpose of a grid or sieve-that is to say, they may be made of wood or sheet metal, and freely perforated, or of wire-gauze, bolting-cloth, Wire, or other bars or rods, or of interlaced or interlinked wire or other netting, Sto. When made of crossing-wires or in any similar manner, rendering a surrounding border or frame necessary or desirable, I have found it convenient to make such border of sheet or other metal, so bent or cast as to leave a groove to receive the ends or edges of the wire, and to which the border or frame may be secured by solder or otherwise.

I have shown two of these shelves as permanently fixed in place, two as removable, and one of them inY an inclined position, as at a'. When used in cars, the inclination of the shelves and their removability have, in connec# tion with their open structure, peculiar value.

The continuous and severe jolting of cars, common on American railways, has the tendency to shake the letters, 85e., out of the compartments if the bottoms be horizontal. If the same be inclined downward from front to rear, and be not of open-work, the dirt as well as the letters settle backward, all gravitating to the same point, until, on very dusty days or on long routes, the dirt will so gather to the depth of several inches, and it is very inconvenient to remove it. By having them open or perforated they constantly rid themselves of dust. By being removable the attendant can, in a moment, discharge the whole contents of a compartment into a compartment beneath, when desirable, or can remove such contents, with the shelf, the platform, or counter, or to any other locality, for .any purpose.

visible, and Without any efi'ort,`as by my improvement, this liability does not exist, and the eyes of some of the attendants are almost certain to detect carelessness, and they thus act as checks upon each other.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The employment of a perforated or open- Work shelf for the reception of letters, packages, Sac., as and for the purposes described.

2. I also claim the same when so applied as to be readily removable, as and for the purposes described.

HENRY G. PEARSON.

Witnesses C. E. HARTUNG, JOHN J. HALs'rED. 

